Pivoted doors are conventionally hung with their vertical pivot axis some 50 mm to 75 mm from the adjacent door jamb. This means that when the door is opened, a gap opens up between the door jamb and the portion of the door on that side of the pivot axis. This gap is large enough for a hand or fingers to be trapped when the door closes again.
Various solutions have been proposed for finger protection for hinged doors. In one system, a finger excluder in the form of a profiled strip is connected on the hinge side of the door between the door itself and the frame. As the door opens, so the excluder hinges with it and the gap stays covered. When the door closes, the excluder regains its original shape. In another system, a roller blind is fitted between the door and the frame to give protection. In a further system, a concertina-like device is fitted to the frame and has its free end abutting the face of the door. It folds flat to the frame when the door is closed, and when the door is opened covers the opening between the door and the frame.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a safety device for pivoted doors, especially center pivot doors, which substantially reduces the risk of injury to fingers. The safety device of the present invention can be applied both to automatically operating pivoted doors and also to non-automatically operating pivoted doors.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a safety device for pivoted doors which can be fitted as a "retrofit" item to existing doors, as well as being provided as a fitting on newly manufactured doors.
It is an object of a preferred device according to the invention for it to be adjustable, allowing the device to be fitted on doors with a wide range of pivot placements and yet allowing each installation to be precisely configured so as to remove the potential finger trap.